The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1887-11-16

them had .,eaten quick retreat, but the
third had succumbed TO the foul gases
g,nerated there. Two successive at
tempts had been made by other work.
men to rescue him, bat neither of the men
who went down after him returned. Three
men lay dead or dying at the foot of the
ladder. and no workman could be found
foolhardy enough TO venture down.
AAn' who were the men that wint
down ?" asked Bridget Callahan
/ Walsh and William was the men
shat went last Bill Callahan was the
/ first
Ne husband and the father of seven
children. A man tn, is honest as the
day is long that niver lost days work
in his life. May the Lord and all the holy
saints have pity on me r. cried Bridget
! Callahan.
Even in her first wild cry of grief she
managed to sting the woman who stood
silently by her side, and Norah o'Grady
felt the thrust and WINGED under it. No
one had ever accused Patrick OiGra ly of
being honest, and as for doing days
work-since the day some eight or ten
years ago, when O'Grady had abandon
ed the calling of hostler and taken up
the profession of ward politician, he
had never condescended to soil his hands
I with days manual labor. Yet, strange
" enough, Norah O'Grady felt no incli-
n ton to triumph over her enemy, but a
new and tender feeling crept into her
heart.
Meantime Bridget Callahan filed the
air with the sound of her lamentations,
now sobbing, now pleading, now railing
a, those about her
An are We men, an stand there idle
with three poor fellows perishin' so near
an not hand that lifts to save thin I?
Shame on We for weak-hearted towards
For the love of heaven. boys Oh, ye lazy
vagabonds Let woman show We your
duty y
And quick as a flash, before anv one
could anticipate her movement, in spite
of her corpulent and clumsy figure, she
had swung herself over upon the ladder
and was preparing togo down.
In the first excitement of their appear
ance on the scene neither of the women
had noticed a big, muscular fellow, wear
ing a fiashy checked suit with an air
of awkward rakishness, who stood on
the bank Of fresh earth but few PAGES
away, smoking short pipe and gazing
speculatively into the black pit below.
As the woman's sbriil cry OF denuncia-
ton reached his ears he might have been
seen to remove the pipe from his lips for
Il moment and smile grimly to himself
like one who hears compliment intend
ed for him, and hastened to oacknowledgeit it,
But Mrs. Callahan had no sooner set foot
on the ladder than heavy hand fell on
her shoulder, and gruH voice sounded
in her ears. -
Back
She looked up and recognized him, and
her face grew red as lobster with con-
tending emotions
Oh, it's you, Patrick O'Grady, is it?'
she cried out in shrill voice. Let go
of me. Oh, you worthless Ioafer You
good-for-nothing, do-nothing. dog poison
ing r-rascai. Let me 90 to save my man
My man, whose little finger is worth more
than your whole lazy body. Oh, Bill,
Bill"
And she broke out intoa fresh storm of
sobs; but she suffered herself to be led
back without further protest
Manwhile, the man whom she had 50
bitterly denounced, but TO whom she had
nevertheless yielded an unwilling obedi-
ence, felta light touch upon his shoulder
and turned to tace his wife. His eyes
asked question, and her eyes answer
ed it,
All right, if you say so, my girl
In an instant his attitude had chang
ed. New life seemed infused into him
His huge. brawny frame, but the moment
before a torpid. inert mass, became the
embodiment of activity and force. The
sluggish blood bounded through his
veins. Recollections of old times, when
he had been miner on the Comstock,
and had fought the miners battle with
foul air and tire-iamp, came back to
him. He flung off his coat and unbutton-
ed his collar, bareing his huge, muscular
throat
Some rope~ he shouted.
A coil of rope fell at his feet. He
caught up a hose, hanging over bed of
mortar close by, and turned. IA spray of
water into the dark pit, at the same time
saturating his handkerchief with the wa
ter and bin ling it tightly about his mouth
and nostrils. Then, with the rope knot
ted around him, "a word to the men who
were to pay it out, and parting kiss to
his wife, he stepped upon the ladder and
commenced the descent
Norah 0'Grady, her heart wrung with
terror, stood on the brink and saw him
go. To his death, she thought, and tried
TO frame some prayer for him, but her
white lips refused to move. Standing
there, on the threshold of what she felt
must be the tragedy of her life, she be-
came suddenly aware of the curious eyes
bent epon her, and of the absurd specta-
Gle she presented in her calico wrapper
and with the child's hat on her head.
She knew that she had sent her husband
to his doom, and she must not leave the
place where she could seee his dead body
when the men pulledit up but she tried
to settle the jaunty hat into some ex-
preston of propriety, and fumbling with
her belt, sfroye to arrange the folds of
her wrapper.
In the midst of her awkward struggle
mantle seemed to descend upon her
from the heavens. Gazing in astonish-
ment over one shoulder, she found her
self arrayed in all the glory of the Pals
ley shawl Looking up, shesaw her enc
my awed into silence by the strange turn
events had taken. Looking down upon
her with quite a new expression, and she
realized that it was no chance impulse
that had prompted her to divest herself
of the garment, bat tender womanly con-
sideration.
81 don't need it, whispered Mrs. CAL